Here at First and Goal, we have very important and pressing announcement to make:

OMGzzzz!!!!11!!!1

I IS HAZ GINTER!!!1!

OMG!!! Allen & Ginter!

That is all. You may now return to your previously scheduled activities.

For those of you who are curious, yes, this bad boy is ready and raring to go for the annual Gint-a-Cuffs competition. Last year, I had to do a faux Gint-a-Cuffs entry because I had missed the entry deadline (my inability to make quick decisions led me to buying a box about a month or two later than everyone else). But this year, I’m in. In fact, the box is all ripped and mostly written up, I just need to scan everything and wait for the official scoring rules.

Just a quick update to let everyone know that the products for the next few months of the Cards of the Month Club have been selected and posted. Just jump over to www.firstandgoalsportscards.com/cardclub.html and click on each sport to see the lineup. Basketball is still a bit of a struggle with a lot of products being cancelled after the whole NBA labor debacle, but Baseball is heating up now that the brand new 2012 products are hitting the shelves!

If you are not already a member of the Cards of the Month Club, consider joining today!

I have a question for all of you Allen and Ginter nuts out there. I realize this might seem a bit elementary, but I’m new to the game, so please forgive me.

When I opened my box, I pulled an N43 Box Loader of David Price. As a Buccos fan and Emmitt Smith collector, this card has absolutely no importance to me or my card collection. So naturally I’d like to send it to someone who will appreciate it. I will probably go the eBay route because it doesn’t make a lot of sense for a business to buy things and then turn around and give it all away for free (well, at least not for a company the size of mine).

So that brings us to our question: Just how do you ship one of these things?!?

I mean, really. It’s too large for a standard penny sleeve and toploader. And thicker toploaders don’t help because thickness is the only dimension that’s NOT bigger than normal. But it’s too small for a picture frame or something like that. Do I just stick it between two pieces of cardboard and hope my “DO NOT BEND” stamp is noticed? Do I try to tape multiple toploaders together? Do I just throw the card away in digust because I can’t ship it like a normal card (keep in mind I am a severe creation of habit).

Wait a minute. Something doesn’t look right. Isn’t Allen & Ginter a baseball set? Aren’t I reading a football card blog? Did banks get tired of buying each other and opt to start buying and merging sports card blogs? I’m confused.

The answer to those burning questions would be: Yes. Yes. Not yet. So to clarify, I will remind you all that I already posted a disclaimer about this one. I got caught up in the moment and bought a box of baseball cards. I wasn’t able to enter Gint-a-Cuffs III, so I figured I might as well do a box break review. This is that review.

The Box – Click for Detail

Hobby boxes come with 24 8-card packs for a total of 192 cards. I got this box from Dave and Adam’s Card World for $82, which translates into a reasonable $0.43/card ratio. Allen & Ginter is a rare breed. It appeals to set collectors with its large base set, short prints, and variants, but it also appeals to hit collectors (though certainly not as much as a super high end set) with its red ink autos and DNA relics. So $0.43 is just about right: low enough for set collectors to buy in bulk but not so low that it thwarts all mojo collectors.

If you get around Blogland, you’ve seen this olde tyme guy a lot by now…

FIRST AND GOAL’S FOUR DOWNS:1st Down, Design: I love it. Other folks have mentioned they don’t particularly care for the A&G design this year and that it’s slowly been going downhill over the past few years. This is my first real look at A&G, so I guess I haven’t been jaded by even better sets, because I really like this design. The painted feel of the photos is great and the overall design is very clean. I also really like the logo placement and what Topps did for the non-MLB base cards. I do admit the player name placement could be better. The last names just sorta hang out there. One thing I’m not a fan of is the horizontal cards. They just seem awkward and don’t fit the feel of the set as well, especially the ones that have an action shot. The card backs are interesting. Maybe A&G has always done this, but I was amused by the lack of any graphics and having all statistics in word form.

2nd Down, Inserts: Where to start? I guess the minis. These are cool, espcially since they have the old cigarette feel to them, especially once you add the Ad Backs. The various inserts were all very interesting subjects, I’m just still not sure how I feel about non-sports cards in my sports card box. One thing I need help from an avid A&G fan is about the mini vs standard sized inserts. Other than base cards, all of my minis were from different sets than my standard sized inserts. Is that common? Do they separate inserts so that this group is only available as minis and that group is only available in standard sized? I also really like the A&G relics. I find it really cool that the actual relic swatch is embedded on a mini card which is then encased inside a standard sized card. Cool stuff. I’m also digging the plaid Upton relic. For more information on that, go read Night Owl’s post. Overall, these are pretty cool inserts. Even if I do have my doubts about sponges being a part of the “ascent of man”. It probably doesn’t help that I believe in intelligent Creation…

3rd Down, Collation: Solid. Out of 127 base cards, a mere 3 were duplicates. I tend to hate duplicates, but that really isn’t a bad ratio at all. And one of those was from my favorite team (Pedro Alvarez), so I really can’t complain (although I’d rather have a duplicate of Neil Walker or Andrew McCutchen). I feel like I got all of the short prints, minis, relics, and various other inserts I was supposed to get, so that is another plus. Really, this was one of the best collated boxes I’ve seen in a long time. Hopefully this box is indicative of the entire product run.

4th Down, Overall Value: Well, it certainly helps that this is one of the most popular products of the year across any sport. As I said, there are a lot of pieces to lure in a lot of different types of collectors. You’re getting a very nicely designed product with some rather nice “chase” cards for a decent enough price. One factor that probably goes unnoticed in these product reviews more than it should is the fun factor. This product was just fun to open. I never knew if the next card was going to be a base card of Chase Utley, a mini parallel of Wee Man, or a very colorful card of a fish. Not every card appealed to my tastes in collecting (where are the Emmitt Smith A&G minis?!?), but each one has a cool factor. Considering this is a HOBBY (which a lot of people seem to forget on a daily basis), what more could you ask?

RED ZONE RESULTS: TOUCHDOWN, PAT GOOD As I mentioned above, maybe it’s just because I haven’t had prior experience with the Allen & Ginter line, but I loved this product. There were very few items that made me question the folks behind the scenes and it was just a blast to open. I got thrashed for saying the Big Time inserts in 2011 SAGE were nice because they were colorful and reminded me of my childhood for some reason, but I’m going to play a similar card here. Even if these cards were worthless (and I’m not sure how many people are storming eBay looking for cards of old wooden ships), this product would still have a fair amount of value in every pack. It’s well designed. It’s spontaneous. It’s fun. It deserves the TD and PAT.

As promised, I did a little research and tried to score my box of 2011 Allen & Ginter. I had wanted to officially register for this year’s blog battle, but just didn’t have the hobby funds at the time. So per the norm, I am a day late and a dollar short. The official 1&G product review is still forth coming, but here is my mock Gint-a-Cuffs breakdown awhile. And note, since I am not an official contestant this year, I’m not doing a pack-by-pack and I’m not showing every card that scores points. You can see scans of some of them in that forth coming review. These scores may also not be 100% accurate, but I tried to be as true to the rules as possible and penalized myself where necessary. For instance, I did pull a Chuck Woolery, but due to knowing I wasn’t doing a pack-by-pack review, I didn’t note until after the fact that his point bonus was contingent on who was in his pack, so no points for my misstep. For the record, my favorite team is the Pirates and favorite player is Neil Walker. Now, the results:

One adjustment that needs to be made is for my favorite player. I added +4 for Neil Walker, which I believe plays by the rules. However, if I had registered on time, everyone else also would have been given +2 for Neil being on the Favorite Player list. So instead of figuring out everyone who pulled Neil and adjust their scores, I will just assume all participants pulled his card and thus the net affect would be to reduce my score by -2.

FINAL RESULT: 212 POINTS

As of right now, that would put me square in a tie with Night Owl for third place. Fortunately for Mr. Owl, I am not eligble. Unfortunately for everyone, I am pretty sure I will be participating should there be a Gint-a-Cuffs IV. I was obviously happy to pull my favorite player, and I was surprised at some of the players not on the list (Chase Utley? Albert Pujols? Really?). I can also definitely see the value in having a favorite team such as the Phillies though: way more chances at bonus team points due to team popularity and representation in the overall checklist. I pulled a whopping 6 Pirates, and one was a duplicate.

I must say, I have a new appreciation for everyone who participates. Breaking an entire box and scoring every card was enough work for me. I can only imagine how much more effort and time it would take to report on a pack-by-pack basis and show a scan of every scoring card (every card listed above, without being able to group total like I did for the inserts).

This certainly was a lot of fun though. The official 1&G box break product review will definitely have an entertainment factor built into the overall value portion.

Well, I did it. I’m still not sure exactly how to feel about it, but it’s done. No do-overs. It’s final.

I bought a box of baseball cards.

I bought a box of Allen & Ginter baseball cards.

And now I will probably never look at life the same again.

As a guy who hasn’t really collected actual baseball cards since he was about 8 years old, I’ve always felt like a bit of an outsider in Blog-o-Land. Sure, there are plenty of football card blogs, or at least multi-sport blogs, to keep me occupied in the little time I have to surf the Blog Wave. But there’s just something about baseball cards. It must be what all other pies feel when Apple Pie shows up to the party.

And damn if I don’t love me some apple pie.

So after three years of reading blogs gush over baseball cards and specifically Allen & Ginter baseball cards, I finally caved. I really wanted to pull the trigger when 2011 Gint-a-Cuffs signups were underway, but the PayPal bankroll wasn’t much at the time and I talked myself out of it. So in typical Dave fashion, I’m showing up late with my apple pie to a party where almost everyone has already had their fill of apple pie.

[Note to self: stop writing blog posts on an empty stomach]

But there are some saving graces. Because I didn’t get in on the Gint-a-Cuffs action, there will not be a pack-by-pack breakdown. I may post a mock Ginty score, but it won’t matter to anyone but me. I also won’t talk on end about how much I love or hate certain inserts, lament over short prints, or beg and plead to the masses for the 9 minis I need to complete the set. I’ll probably post a standard box break review, list some cards on eBay or a trade list, and call it a day. And the last saving grace, and to give this post some legitimacy as a First and Goal post, I can also relate this purchase to a Pearl Jam song. Go me.

Title: HabitAlbum:No CodeCorrelation: This one is strictly lyrically based. With regards to buying Allen & Ginter, these could easily be my thoughts verbatim:

See it happen to a couple of friends
See it happen and the message it sends
Takin off for what’s an obvious fall
Just to see what all the fuss is about

And as far as what you might be thinking at home, especially those of you who also aren’t all that into baseball cards or Allen & Ginter specifically, this is probably a good sumation of your thoughts:

It’s not your way… not your way
It’s not your way

Never thought you’d habit [repeated a whole bunch…]

No official music video, but here is a fairly decent live video for your viewing pleasure.

Speaking as a child of the 90s…

So yeah. I did it. I admit. There’s no turning back now. And I don’t feel terribly guilty about it.

Sue me.

Or just be on the look out for an official 1&G product review stating what everyone already knows anyway.

Talk about finding paydirt. You may or may not believe what you are about to read, but I promise it is the truth.

I own a T206 Honus Wagner card and it is practically in gem mint condition.

The holy grail of all card collecting.

No joke.

Need proof? How about a scan. And bear in mind, this is NOT a “borrowed” image from another website. This is purely and honestly directly from my cheapo CanoScan Lide Scanner at home:

T206 Honus Wagner

See. I wouldn’t lie to you.

Alright, now before my inbox gets flooded with requests to see, touch, smell, and lick this historic goodness, and before my identity protection is compromised and I have petty thieves breaking into my house every night, I should probably qualify that bolded statement above. But before I do, let’s start with a story.

When I was about 7, I was really starting to take an interest in collecting cards. So much so, that it didn’t matter what was on the card. Baseball, football, basketball, Batman (the 1989 movie), Home Alone actors, or my local police force (who apparently thought handing out their own baseball cards to little boys was far less creepy than handing out candy from unmarked vans): it didn’t matter. If it was cardboard, measured 21/2” by 31/2” and featured something I had even a hint of recognizing, I wanted it. I even had a random card of a horse. No, not Secretariat or Affirmed, just a normal brown and white horse. My best friend at the time was also really into cards and we would often compare collections and trade.

One time we were looking through a magazine (probably an old Beckett) and saw an article about the T206 Honus Wagner and the fact that it was ridiculously valuable. I looked at my friend and said, “I have that card!” Naturally he did not believe me, and because I didn’t want to feel obligated to share any of my possible wealth, we changed subjects and continue with our childhood activities of the day. Not long afterwards, I pulled out my blue Baseball Card Dugout and sure enough, there it was. I couldn’t help but think, Oh man! I’m gonna be rich! To make things even sweeter, I realized that I had a duplicate! DOUBLE BONUS! All I had to do was figure out who could help me sell it and I would be able to buy all of the candy, baseball cards, and toys I could dream of. I could even keep one of the copies just to prove to all my friends that I had one AND still have tons of disposable income.

There was, as I’m sure you have figured out by now, a catch to this whole grand scheme. It wasn’t until I turned the card over that I realized the sad truth:

Awww Hell…

To my well informed readers, you can spot the obvious problem with this situation. I must admit though, that my 7-year-old mind was so convinced I had hit the card collecting jackpot that my first reaction was, Why would they just describe the card on back and how did they know it would be worth $25,000 someday? And besides, I thought it was worth over a MILLION dollars! Then it dawned on me.

This wasn’t a real T206 Wagner.

So what started as a special discovery of unimaginable wealth prospects quickly turned into the realization that all I had was two worthless reprints. Awesome. I hate to admit it, but the aforementioned bolded statement needed to be qualified as such: I own a T206 Honus Wagner replica/reprint card and it is practically in gem mint condition.

To this day, I still have to laugh anytime I see, hear or read a reference to the Holy Grail as I think to myself, I have that card! I have no idea how I came about obtaining these replicas. I have a few other tobacco style reprints and a 1935 Knute Rockne National Chicle football card. I just remember always being annoyed with them (except for that short time when I thought they were actually valuable) because they were not standard sized cards and would always fall out of stacks and dig into my hands as I was collating my collection.